Chasing TARDIS
by theworldisahead
Summary: The story of a fangirl as she tries to win the attention of a cute boy. We've all been there. A bit of a different story, with original characters. Written for a feels-y story contest. Inspired by the song "Chasing Cars," by Snow Patrol.


Chasing TARDIS

She lay on her back in the cold, dark forest. The sky was beautiful tonight. There was no moon, and the stars twinkled as if there were trying to outshine one another. With some difficulty she turned her head to look over to him. She watched as his chest rose and fell and the small stream of steam that every so often escaped his mouth. She moved her one free arm over the snow and closed his hand in hers.

He stirred, his eyes slowly opening. He made a small moan. "Hurts," he said quietly. She nodded. "Can you move?" she asked. He tried to wriggle out from the large hunk of metal that was trapping them to the ground. The metal creaked and moaned, but didn't move an inch. He gave up, breathing hard. He shook his head. "Me neither," she said.

He twisted his head in an attempt to see more of the crash site. "Did anyone else survive?" he asked. "I don't know," she replied. "Oh," he said. She had actually noticed some suspicious looking shadows near the twisted metal of the plane earlier, but she had told herself it was just fallen pine branches. "What are we going to do?" she asked. "I don't know," he said.

"Don't worry," she said, "He will come." "Who?" he asked. "The Doctor," she said. He gave out a sigh of exasperation, "Now is not the time! Okay?!" She was silent. "I'm sorry," he said, remorseful, "I just…"

"It's okay," she said, "I know he's not real. I just like to believe he is sometimes. It helps me…To stay strong." He was silent for a moment, and then said, "I know. Don't ever change that about you." She smiled.

The cold had set into her bones, but for some reason she wasn't shivering. It hurt to blink. The metal smashing into her chest made it hard to breath. She just wanted to close her eyes...

"No, come on," he said, squeezing her hand, "We have to stay awake." She barely opened her eyes. "I can't," she said, "I just..." "No," he said, "Come on. We need to stay awake. At least until help comes." She tried to swallow, but her mouth was impossibly dry. She was just so tired. "Tell me a story," he said. "What?" she asked. "Yeah, tell me a story," he said, "It will pass the time until someone comes to help." 'And maybe keep us awake,' he thought.

"Okay," she said, turning back her head to gaze up at the sky, "Well...

...

Charlie wasn't the prettiest girl in school. Or the smartest, or the most creative, or most athletic. Well, she did pretty well at most things; she got As in all her classes, and she was on the varsity tennis team. But, she had to work her butt off to earn those things. Today was the first day of school. Charlie slipped on her favorite jacket and boots and headed out the door.

She walked into her first period class. 'Awkward,' she thought, seeing as she was the first one there. The teacher told her to sit anywhere. Charlie walked to the closest desk and pulled out her notebook. She started doodling. It took her a moment to realize that she was drawing a TARDIS. She was always doing that. One day, she planned on meeting the Doctor, but for now she was stuck in school.

A boy walked into the classroom. He smiled at her and sat in a desk a couple rows over. Charlie felt as if a hammer had just slammed into her chest. "Wait... What? Who is that?' she thought, 'He looks familiar...'

...

Charlie grunted as she returned the ball back to her partner. Tennis was a good escape from all the stresses of school and just people in general. People. She didn't understand why they could be so mean sometimes. Sometimes she would walk through the quad and hear what people were saying about one another and feel like she needed to punch someone on the face just to stand up for someone she didn't know. It made her sad.

She saw Chameron across the sports complex. That was his name, Chameron. He was a star soccer player, she found out. The captain of the team. Charlie watched as Chameron expertly weaved the ball between the players and passed it off to his teammate for a goal.

Oof! The tennis ball hit Charlie straight in the gut and knocked her down on her bum. "Charlie?" said Sarah, running over to her. "What happened?" she asked. "Uhhh," said Charlie, staring up at her, "I don't…" Sarah looked over to the soccer fields. "Ooooh," she said, "I think somebody's got a crush!" "No!" said Charlie, standing up and brushing herself off. "Don't lie," said Sarah, "I saw you watching him." Charlie blushed. "You do know he has a girlfriend, though," said Sarah, picking up Charlie's racket for her. "He does?" asked Charlie. "Yeah, she goes to East High, across town," said Sarah. 'Oh,' thought Charlie.

...

Charlie sat in her room. Just thinking. It was weird. Was she growing up? She had never felt this way about anybody before. Well, she had thought a few boys here or there were cute, but never like this. In the past couple weeks at school she had gotten to know Chameron, and he was... Well, amazing. She just hoped she wasn't too blinded.

In her eyes, as of yet all teenage boys had been the same: immature. She abhorred romantic movies. But now those movies actually stirred some emotion in her. Because Chameron was different, and a lot like her. He was intelligent, and he worked hard at every class. He was athletic, and humble about it. He had a strong sense of morals; she didn't think he had ever really lied in his life. That was more than could be said about her, for earlier this morning she had told her mom that she had worn her retainer all week. (It just hurt her mouth, okay?)

But, Chameron had a girlfriend. The kind of girlfirend where they had been best friends since they were five and then finally started to like each other. Charlie sighed. She didn't know why that hurt her so bad. It felt like someone had stabbed her in the chest. There was absolutely no way that Chameron could think of her in the same way. Then, maybe she could still be friends with him. Maybe. That is, if she could find a way to talk intelligibly around him. She had talked to him a bit, but it was only to ask him what the homework was. Even though she already knew.

She needed to stop thinking about this. She turned on the TV and turned it to BBC. Yes! Doctor Who was on. That show always made her smile.

...

Charlie sat in the library working on her Calculus. That class drove her crazy. "Hey, can I sit here," said a voice. She looked up to see Chameron smiling down at her. Oh, no. She had forgotten how to talk. "Uhhh..." she squeaked out, "Sure." She felt her cheeks flush as he sat down next to her and pulled out his Spanish book. 'Just talk to him,' she thought, 'Be friendly.'

"So," she said, "Are you asking your girlfriend to Winter Ball?" Charlie really didn't want to know, she just couldn't think of anything else to say. "Yeah," said Chameron, "I'm going to her house today and her brother is going to help me leave a trail of roses from her room to the front door and I'm going to hold up a big sign." "Oh, that sounds cute!" said Charlie, even though she felt as if someone was twisting the knife in her chest.

"What's that?" asked Chameron, pointing to a map on her binder. "Oh," said Charlie, blushing even more. "That's, uhm..." she said, embarrased, "That's all the places that the TARDIS had been spotted." "Like in that TV show?" he asked. "Yeah," she said, "Bit of a nerd." She just wanted to melt. Right there in the library, just melt and spend the rest of her life as a sad, nerdy puddle on the floor.

"No," said Chameron, "That's cool. I mean, he could be out there, there's nothing that says he's not." Really? He wasn't making fun of her? This was new. She smiled.

...One year later...

Chameron sat all alone on the bench while his team practiced without him. He looked so sad. Charlie walked over to him as she finished her tennis match. She was actually comfortable talking to him now. They had both worked on the same community service project and over the past year they had become good friends.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked. Chameron shrugged. "Sprained my ankle," he said desolately. "I'm sorry," said Charlie, "Do you need anything?" He shook his head. "Well, I have to go," said Charlie, "But you should text your girlfriend, I bet she could make you smile!" She smiled cheesily at him and he gave a small laugh back. "No, she's probably too busy for me," he said.

"Nonsense," she said, "I mean, if I had a boyfriend, I would want to make sure he's smiling." Chameron smiled. "Yeah, I bet when you meet the Doctor you two will be very happy together," he smirked at her, that twinkle in his eye shining again. "Hey! It'll happen!" said Charlie, punching him lightly in the arm. He laughed. "Okay, well see ya!" she said, "Feel better." "Thanks," he said.

Charlie turned and walked towards her friends. They were sniggering. "What?" asked Charlie. "You two are so cute!" said Sarah. Charlie rolled her eyes. Yeah... Us two...

...

"What?!" said Charlie, eyes wide in shock. "Calm down," said Sarah. Chameron and his girlfriend had broken up. They had developed problems months ago because apparently his girlfriend didn't like him hanging out with his other friends and he had had enough. A few months ago... That explained why Chameron said his girlfriend was too busy for him.

Why was she excited? Well, she knew why... But she felt bad about it. Chameron was still her friend and she wanted him to be happy. But still, she was a teenage girl and couldn't help it. Plus, she had actually met his girlfriend, and never had a good feeling about her. Charlie would often imagine Daleks chasing after her.

...Six months later...

She was going to do it. She was going to ask him out. She was going to ask him to the dance. Charlie walked across the quad to where Chameron was. She had built up the courage for weeks. It was going to happen. She had tried asking him out a while ago, but she had gotten tongue tied and instead asked if he would like a jelly baby. That was embarrassing.

"Oh, hey Charlie!" said Chameron as she walked up, "Guess what?" She smiled, "What?" "Laura said yes!" he said, grinning. "What?" asked Charlie, her smile instantly vanishing. "I asked Laura to the dance and she said yes!" he said. "Oh! Cool! I didn't know you were asking her," said Charlie, managing to fake a smile. Chameron nodded. "Are you going?" he asked. "Uhm, I don't know," she said. "You should go! It'll be fun!" said Chameron, "Aren't we all meeting at Sarah's house?" Charlie nodded. "I, uhm," she said. She really didn't want to go now. She wasn't a big dance person, and now there wasn't much reason to go anyways. "I have a thing," she lied, "But I told Sarah I was going to be there to help take pictures!" "Okay!" said Chameron.

The bell rang signaling the start of class. Charlie didn't have another class today so she left for home. She managed to hold back her tears until she was inside her room.

...

Charlie snapped the picture of everyone all dressed up, ready for the dance. It hurt her inside to see Laura and Chameron together. They were just going as friends, but she still felt empty. Why was he so blind?! Could he not see that she liked him?! Ugh. Boys are stupid. She decided that it would be best just to forget all this. If she could.

...

Charlie had won a scholarship to leadership camp at the capitol on the moon. It was amazing. They had to board this fancy shuttle, where she had immediately made friends. The whole week was spent learning how to be a leader in the growing galaxy, and bonding with other campers. At the end of the week everybody actually cried when they had to leave. It was a life-changing experience.

Except Chameron also went. It was weird, Charlie thought she should've been happy about that, but she wasn't. She just wanted to get away from everything; she wanted to leave all her feelings behind for just one week. They arrived at the space terminal and had to board another ship home. She said one last goodbye to her camp friends and boarded the ship with Chameron. They chatted most of the way about the camp. About the different people they met. About how much they didn't want to go home. Eventually Chameron fell asleep, and Charlie was left to just stare out of the window at the cloud layer.

The ship shook violently, and started leaning severely to the side. Charlie gripped the edge of her seat and glanced over to Chameron, who was now wide awake. An alarm sounded and the lights went out. Charlie could smell something funny coming from the back of the ship. The ship shook again and a fire burst to life, eating away at the starboard engines.

The ship stuttered at the pilot desperately tried to keep it in the air. "Attention," buzzed the intercom, "Please remain calm and stay in your seats. The flight attendants will further instruct you." "Excuse me," said Charlie to a particularly distressed looking flight attendant, "What's going on?!" The flight attendant looked fearful and it gave Charlie chills down her spine. "Pirates," whispered the attendant, and then ran to the front of the plane to instruct the frightened passengers.

Pirates?! Actual space pirates?! This wasn't happening! She and Chameron exchanged glances as they put on their life jacket and oxygen masks. They had barely gotten them on when the ship took another hit, blowing a hole in the hull. The giant ship dropped like a stone, spiraling out of control down towards the ground. The passengers started screaming.

Charlie didn't scream. She was beyond screaming. She looked at Chameron again, and he held out his hand. She gripped it in hers as she saw the ground plummeting towards them. She closed her eyes...

...

Charlie's voice trailed off. Her breathing slowed, and her eyes lost focus. "Charlie?" said Chameron. He watched as her chest came up, and went slowly down, and then was still. "No," he said, struggling against the metal crushing his torso. He managed to twist himself closer to her. "Charlie," he said, shaking her shoulder, "Charlie, you need to wake up... Please..." His eyes were blurred with tears. He set his head down on her chest; he didn't hear a heartbeat. Chameron looked back up at her face. Charlie just looked like she was sleeping.

A strange whirling noise echoed through the forest. Chameron looked behind him and saw the blue police box. The one Charlie was always going on about. He saw it open and a tall man stepped out. Chameron shook his head. 'You're too late, Doctor,' he thought, then turned back to face Charlie. "You didn't finish the story," he said, sobbing. "You never said how shy the boy was. How he didn't know what to say... You didn't get to the part where the boys says: 'I love you.'"


End file.
